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Friday, May 25, 2012

If we are in spiritual warfare with Satan and his demonic hoard, then what should our attitude be toward them? The books of Jude and 2 Peter make it clear that disrespect is unacceptable (would someone please inform Zak of this).So, does it then follow that we must treat demons the same way we are to treat our human enemies—that is, to love them? Hardly not But if we can’t love or disrespect them, WHAT is the proper biblical attitude?

What is the purpose of war? Someone has defined war as capital punishment on an international scale. Biblically, it is all about the extension of God’s kingdom, and the minimization of the kingdom of darkness; they are two sides to the same coin. Common sense dictates that if one kingdom is extended, then it does so at the expense of the other. “Your kingdom come…” places kingdom expansion right at the heart of Christian living, and certainly of paramount importance in spiritual warfare. What is the objective of our spiritual warfare? Kingdom expansion! It is simply impossible to exaggerate the importance the New Testament places on the spread of the Kingdom of God/heaven (the terms are theological equivalents).

Holy hatred….that is what I’m convinced is the proper biblical attitude we are to have to the demonic and Satan. “That is pretty strong language there…not sure I buy it.” Okay, I understand your reticence to say you hate anything. Love is such a driving force in the message of Jesus. However, the bible does say, “Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” (Rom. 12:9) That is not what we refer to as a hapax legomena either…only place where words are found. Get your bible concordance and look up the word “hate”, and you will see what I am talking about. It is not only okay to hate evil; we are commanded to! So, what about the Evil One? He is the epitome of all the evil we are to hate. The fact that they (Satan and demons) are personal beings does not diminish our call to hate them. It is clear that God does….but His hatred is holy. I may lose some readers over this, but I have personal reasons for wrestling with this issue (see below)

Like jealousy and anger, which God displays both, hate is not intrinsically sinful. If you were to visit a prison, many inmates are there because they committed crimes of passion; hate, anger, or jealousy got out of control—which they so easily do in sinful humans. Hence, we automatically assume these emotions are always wrong. But the bible says otherwise. I ask you: did not the Son become the focal point of the Father’s unmitigated fury and holy hatred of sin?. Touching His human nature, God the Son was hated by His Father…how else can you explain the horrible cry of dereliction, “My God, My God why have you forsaken Me?” (the divine nature could not be separated)..trying hard to avoid heresy at this point

Back to the warfare we mentioned earlier. Demons cannot be killed or annihilated as is sometimes implied, if not outright stated, by some folks. They are spiritual creatures who will live forever in hell. Any demonologist who speaks of vanquishing or destroying demons is biblically ignorant. There is biblical and anecdotal evidence that they can suffer though….sometimes horribly. Prayer and the reading of the bible causes pain to these unholy beings. Let me ask: do you REALLY believe you are in mortal combat with the demonic? We must be careful to keep first things first—loving God is to be our driving passion. Flowing from that love, comes our hate for Satan and all demons.. It must never become an end in itself

As I was preparing for the cleansing, all of these thoughts were running through my head. I knew that this pure evil hated me and had tried to kill my daughter a few days earlier. I am a broken man whom the Lord has called and anointed to help those suffering from demonic oppression.. My prayer team does the bulk of the work, and I am unworthy ….The zeal of the Lord infuses me as I peek into the attic…”Get out! In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, get out..NOW!. I hate you with a holy hatred, and if you linger I will ask the Father to sling you into the abyss…You have no legal right…the blood Jesus trumps all claims you…” I will stop there. What I do is attack our enemy in the name of Jesus. They hate my dear Jesus…our dear Jesus. That is why we hate Satan and his demons. Do you? Or are you a spiritual pacifist? May the Love of God consume us. Amen